While I debate with myself about which yarn I want to use for the shawl-collar vest idea and which pattern (and stash yarn) for a wrap, I’ve knitted a hat for my beloved. On Christmas day, we had turkey enchiladas with our close family-friends, the elder of which was wearing a hat Bob took one look at and flashed me a face that said “please!” After some investigation, it was established that my pal Jo had knitted it from Alexis Winslow’s pattern called Cabled Dad Hat. And it seemed like a perfect use for some of the leftover yarn from Bob’s sweater vest, so that’s what’s kept my hands busy on recent nights.
If you’ve seen previous years’ posts about hats for Bob, you may recall he likes a skullcap — won’t wear a beanie that comes down over his ears — but we’d agreed he needed one that could at least fold down over them when needed. To arrive at this outcome, and following Jo’s lead, I began the decreases at 6″ instead of 7″, which for me meant 5 repeats of the chart. (If I make it again, I might stop at 5″.) And then I also shortened the crown portion by speeding up the increases and knitting fewer total rows, which I did simply by decreasing on every round starting with crown row 13.
As usual with hats, I didn’t swatch, and it’s a tiny bit big so we’ll make an effort to shrink it just a touch. But overall, we’re both very happy with it — it’s a great pattern that was obviously more fun to knit than his usual stockinette-everything requests, and it’s nice to see some texture on him.
I realized while finishing this up the other night that, as much as I’ve enjoyed knitting for him and my as-yet unspecified niece, it’s officially been too long since I knitted anything for myself. Time to solve for one or the other of those aforementioned cast-ons!
(Drawstring project bag and Lykke needles from Fringe Supply Co.)
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PREVIOUSLY in Finished Objects: Sunny little Sólbein cardigan
Please share your method for shrinking up the hat a bit. I’ve knit one for my dh and it too is a bit too large. I’m more than a bit anxious about putting it in the dryer, but I suspect that that is your method.
It’s in the dryer as we speak! My routine is to put things in on low heat for the shortest run time, check it, run it again, check it …
If I put it in on a longer run time and tell myself to check it, I inevitably forget all about it until after the cycle has ended. Short run time is like a self-enforcing alarm.
Also, I don’t put things in until they’ve air dried a bit — so they’re damp, not soaking wet when they first go in. And I take them out just before they’re bone dry. I don’t let completely dry wool bounce around in dry heat.
Thanks! I just needed a bit of hand holding for this exercise!
Beautiful stitch definition! I guess I have a small head as I learned to do hat ribbing with needles that are 3 sizes smaller than body or I cast on a few less and increase a few more after ribbing.
Ideally I would have eliminated some stitches from the ribbing and increased before starting the stitch pattern. It fits him ok, it’s just not as snug as he would like.
great hat on Bob!!!! I know it will fit his cranium very nicely
thank you!! great inspiration! i love the knit darling website and other patterns too :)))
I make lots of hats: some for my famiky, but mostly for homeless members of my community. I make them much longer: 8-9″ before the decreases begin, which allows for either a fashionable slouch, or a turned up cuff wide enough to make a double later over the ear. Those who are knitting for cold climates might want to keep that in mind.
I wish you would occasionally feature posts on charity knitting: many many of us do that, at least in part to use up those partial skeins of yarn, but there are lots of other reasons that engage us as well.
What kind of thing did you have in mind? We did a year of hat knitalongs a few years ago with a charity component for each one, but I’m open to other ideas!
Would you consider writing a post about just how you go about shrinking your hand knits? I mean, I know theoretically how to do it. But I’m eyeing a couple sweaters that aren’t getting any smaller from blocking attempts, and still a little nervous about taking the plunge. Tips would be appreciated!
Sure, see my response to Judy a few comments up.